May 10, 2013

I try to be scrupulous about my taxes, both because it's the right thing to do and because powerful groups don't like me. A long time ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center started poking around in my taxes. The SPLC is so in bed with various branches of the feds that the suspicion that the IRS might act upon a little list from the SPLC of people the SPLC doesn't like isn't necessarily pure paranoia.

A few days ago, it was recommended to me that I accept Bitcoins. I replied: I've always figured that accepting Bitcoins as donations would just attract SPLC and then IRS attention, so I long ago decided I'm not going to touch them.

Hollywood moguls can make it so there's no profits on billion dollar blockbusters.

Wall Street crooks get 'bailed out' even though they used banks like casinos.

But go after a blogger! Sailer must be like Al Capone!

So, the very people who bitch and moan about the dark days of McCarthyism pull the same crap yr after yrs. And it's not just in 2012. It's been for a very long time and we know it.

Indeed, IRS and other agencies have been politicized and used as ideological muscles. And if the IRS doesn't get you, local governments and media will. If your business isn't pro-gay, cities will ban your business and media will attack you so much that investors will vanish and customers will drop away.

In Watergate days some of those not investigated were said to have developed "subpoenas envy".

So it is that I find myself feeling all funky and inadequate that I have never been scrutinized by the Southern Poverty Law Center. I must be too moderate.

I've certainly been audited by the IRS often enough. When I did my own taxes I was audited just about every year. My 'day job' was to defend against audits usually by Big 8 accounting firms. IRS auditors are distinctly second rate. It was fun.

I wrote off our five week vacation in Europe. Even I didn't think I could get away with that one but when in doubt - claim the deduction. And then you get to argue with IRS dummies.

This despicable agency tries to intimidate the people they are charged to serve. Intimidate them right back. Bastards.

"Gyft, a mobile gift card platform, today announces that it has added support for bitcoin purchases of gift cards on the Android platform, through its partnership with BitPay Inc., the world's leading payment processor for bitcoin."

I guess these 50,000 retail locations are going to get in trouble with the IRS then. And so is WordPress because they accept BTC and host controversial blogs, too. Hmm, maybe they just care about explicitly political things? Well, the Libertarian Party is accepting BTC without any problems...

Seriously, the point of accepting bitcoins isn't so Steve can hide a paper trail. In fact, bitcoin does a shitty job of that when you post your address online, since the entire blockchain in public. He should accept BTC because fees are virtually non-existent and there aren't any restrictions on international transfer. Have you ever tried to use PayPal from the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East? It's impossible in lots of places, and not just countries like North Korea.

Listening to the news about the misdeeds of the IRS employees operating out of the Cincinnati office, I can't help wondering if they'll turn out to be African American. Cincinnati is about 43% black and of course these sorts of government jobs are the foundation of the black middle class. My suspicions are raised by the fact that blacks are so fiercely protective of this president and seem to react viscerally to anyone who dares oppose him. I see this in the black members of congressional hearings on Benghazi, who have no interest in uncovering any information, as well as in the black members of the administration who have been in the forefront of the cover up, such as the State Department's Susan Rice and Cheryl Mills.

This isn't just a case of some random IRS flunkies going off the reservation. IRS management had to be behind this to make it actually happen, so in this case it appears civil service management have been radicalized and are now operating as Obamissars within the IRS.

Steve, over the last few weeks you have been drinking from a fire hose of opportunity.

I can think of one good reason why. It would not be above the SPLC, or certain law-enforcement agencies, or oppo-research arms of political parties to give money to neo-nazis, klansmen, etc. so that they could then make donations to a site like Steve's, so that the site-owner could then be smeared when the donors names and affilitations are revealed.

Due to the apparently small scope of this, I expect the story of a few low-level IRS agents abusing their power, and no real conspiracy, to be true. However, it may be true that the higher-ups saw it happening and didn't care, but that will be harder to prove. I see a parallel in the Abu Graib scandal, where it turned out to be a few twisted guards and not part of the vast right wing bushitler conspiracy.However, the tin-foil-hat-wearing part of me predicts the left will make some use of this in due time. Expect a scandal to erupt in a couple of years where some really shady left-wing groups that clearly do not qualify for tax-exempt status will get that status approved by the IRS. The people responsible will simply point at the current scandal and claim they put in new procedures to prevent that kind of scandal again, and they can't possibly change the procedures lest they deny some eligible group tax-exempt status. Of course, only left-leaning groups will slip through and get their tax-exempt status, while right-leaning groups continue to be denied.

The IRS abusing their power is disturbing even if no higher-ups are involved. It would indicate that the rank-and-file employees are politicized enough that they _don't have to be told_ who to go after. They read Daily Kos enough to figure it out on their own, and are unrestrained enough to act on it.

Here's the Google Wallet FAQ. From it: "You will need to have (or sign up for) Google Wallet to send or receive money. If you have ever purchased anything on Google Play, then you most likely already have a Google Wallet. If you do not yet have a Google Wallet, don’t worry, the process is simple: go to wallet.google.com and follow the steps." You probably already have a Google ID and password, which Google Wallet uses, so signing up Wallet is pretty painless.

You can put money into your Google Wallet Balance from your bank account and send it with no service fee.

Google Wallet works from both a website and a smartphone app (Android and iPhone -- the Google Wallet app is currently available only in the U.S., but the Google Wallet website can be used in 160 countries).

Or, once you sign up with Google Wallet, you can simply send money via credit card, bank transfer, or Wallet Balance as an attachment from Google's free Gmail email service. Here'show to do it.

(Non-tax deductible.)

Fourth: if you have a Wells Fargo bank account, you can transfer money to me (with no fees) via Wells Fargo SurePay. Just tell WF SurePay to send the money to my ancient AOL email address steveslrATaol.com -- replace the AT with the usual @). (Non-tax deductible.)

Fifth: if you have a Chase bank account (or, theoretically,other bank accounts), you can transfer money to me (with no fees) via Chase QuickPay (FAQ). Just tell Chase QuickPay to send the money to my ancient AOL email address (steveslrATaol.com -- replace the AT with the usual @). If Chase asks for the name on my account, it's Steven Sailer with an n at the end of Steven. (Non-tax deductible.)

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